1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program, and, more particularly to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program for executing creation of a map (an environmental map) (mapping) around a camera, i.e., environmental map creation processing on the basis of an image photographed by the camera.
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program for observing a moving environment in an agent (a moving object) such as a robot including a camera, executing creation of a map (an environmental map) (mapping) around the agent, i.e., environmental map creation processing according to an observation state, and further executing estimation of a position and a posture of the agent, i.e., identification processing (localization) for an own position or an own posture in conjunction with the environmental map creation processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Environmental map construction processing for observing a moving environment in an agent (a moving object) such as a robot including a camera and creating a map (an environment map) around the agent according to an observation state is often performed for route search for moving objects such as a car and a robot. JP-A-2003-269937 discloses a technique for detecting planes from a distance image (a stereo image) created from images photographed by plural cameras, finding a floor surface from the detected group of planes and positions and postures of the imaging devices, and finally recognizing an obstacle from the floor surface. However, in an analysis of a peripheral environment executed by the technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-269937, the environment can only be distinguished as the “floor” and the “obstacle”.
In the method described above, it is necessary to generate a distance image using photographed images of the plural cameras. Techniques for creating an environmental map on the basis of image analysis processing for one camera-photographed image without creating such a distance image are also being actively developed. Most of the techniques are systems for recognizing various kinds of information from only one image acquired by a monocular camera. However, most of these kinds of processing are adapted to calculate, for example, with a coordinate system having an origin in a position of a camera set as a world coordinate system, positions of objects around the world coordinate system. In other words, it is a main object of the processing to allow a robot including a camera to run without colliding with objects around the robot. A detailed analysis for various recognition targets included in an image photographed by a camera, for example, recognition result objects such as “wall”, “table”, and “sofa”, specifically, for example, an analysis of three-dimensional shapes of the respective recognition targets is not performed. Therefore, the techniques only create an environmental map for self-sustained traveling.